Here is a free reading test to help you prepare for the iBT exam.
The answers are given after the questions to Passage 1.
Passage 1
Working in a run-down laboratory near Paris, Marie Curie worked around the clock to discover a radioactive element. When she finally captured her quarry in 1902, she named it radium after the Latin word meaning ray.
Madame Curie should certainly be an inspiration to scientists today. She had spent the day blending chemical compounds which could be used to destroy unhealthy cells in the body. As she was about to retire to bed that evening, she decided to return to her lab. There she found that the chemical compound had become crystalized in the bowls and was emitting the elusive light that she sought.
Inspired by the French scientist Henri Becquerel, Curie won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903. Upon winning the prize, she declared that the radioactive element would be used only to treat disease and would not be used for commercial profit.
Today radium provides the most effective remedy for certain types of cancer. Radium, now used for a treatment called radiotherapy, works by inundating diseased cells with radioactive particles. Its success lies in the fact that it eradicates malignant cells without any lasting ill effects on the body.
1. Which of the following is the best meaning of the word quarry as it is used in this passage?
A. a precious commodity
B. an unknown catalyst
C. an object that is sought
D. a chemical compound
2. According to the information in the passage, why is radium treatment used as a cancer therapy?
A. because it is cost effective
B. because it destroys cancerous cells
C. because it has no long-term effects
D. because it emits a glowing light
3. What is the most appropriate title of the passage?
A. Madame Curie: An Inventive Chemist
B. The Discoveries of Madame Curie
C. The Use of Radium to Treat Cancer
D. The Discovery and Use of Radium
4. Which of the following phrases or sentences from the passage expresses an opinion rather than a fact?
A. Marie Curie worked around the clock to discover a radioactive element.
B. Madame Curie should certainly be an inspiration to scientists today.
C. She had spent the day blending chemical compounds which could be used to destroy unhealthy cells in the body.
D. Upon winning the prize, she declared that the radioactive element would be used only to treat disease and would not be used for commercial profit.
ANSWERS:
1. C
2. B
3. D
4. B
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